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Outraged, Tunbridge Wells

If you have the stomach you might want to dip into the Daily Telegraph readers’ threads on Scottish issues to discover the cesspit of Scottophobia, defined by Tom Devine as: ‘the irrational aversion among the English establishment to Scots who, through the Union of 1707, achieved high political office.’ It has morphed into something deeper and uglier – a vicious, quasi-racist loathing for friends and neighbours by people convinced self-determination is designed to spite them.

From politics these English bigots jump seamlessly into sneering diatribes about poverty-stricken, useless Scots whose companies and institutions only exist courtesy of their Britain and will leave if the tartan hordes ever get control. Today there is a contribution from, presumably, a sane, educated Telegraph type claiming London has a superior IQ to Scotland and it is our collective lack of developed intelligence that blights our future. Wasn’t that the Boer’s argument against the blacks? Are we heading not into separate political systems but into apartheid?*

The slurry of unresearched accusation and demonic delight at the idea of a failed Scotland is clearly a psychological outlet for their hatred of us and, I suspect, a personal manifestation of what the UK Government is undergoing now – a crisis of confidence and identity. Without wishing to overplay the metaphor, there is something of the cornered rat at play here. The veneer of mutual respect is torn away as soon as they don’t get their way and in return for making them feel the fear, they fall upon us with teeth bared.

In this online underworld of acrimony can be found the seeds of resentment sown by the Unionists who never correct impressions that Scots are subsidised and therefore dependent, never stand up for their country in public and are blind to the crying need for Britain’s economic and democratic imbalances to be corrected. To English voters, there is only contempt for people who appear to win concessions unavailable to them. When do you hear any Unionist politicians explain how Scotland’s budget is set at Westminster, where there is an overwhelming majority of English MPs?

And does it help that a Cabinet minister, the Highland MP Danny Alexander starts talking about businesses leaving Scotland? I find it irresponsible for someone tasked with defending the economy to deliberately undermine confidence by reckless and unsubstantiated remarks. He is in the Telegraph claiming that Alex Salmond had made a dramatic shift in policy when all Salmond said was that sterling was tradable. Such was Danny’s excitement at Phase Two of Currency Wars that, instead of waiting for Salmond to deliver a Plan B, he just blew off anyway saying that thousands of jobs were at risk, the banks would leave and business would follow…what an irresponsible, knuckle-dragging position for the Chief Secretary to the Treasury to take. Has Britain ever had such an inexperienced, unskilled, juvenile, student politician in the Treasury team? As for defending Scotland’s interests…that concept seems never to have occurred to him. This is a democratic process in which there are two sides, neither of which wishes to destroy the economy either of Scotland or Britain. It may require a degree of intelligence or, heaven help me, subtlety, but the UK really has to try for a higher standard of contribution. I have tired before to explain that there are nuanced ways of putting over a message while maintaining one’s integrity and the dignity of office, but I’m afraid Danny is falling well short on both.

Here’s his argument: ‘We’re able to have that scale of financial sector in Scotland because we’re part of the United Kingdom, because we have access to the Bank of England, the deep pockets fiscally of the UK Government as well, which helped to bail out RBS and Bank of Scotland.’ That means – we only have a financial sector because we’re in the UK. Scots themselves couldn’t have created this because they don’t have the nous. You may have read about 300-year-old banks and the first trustee savings banks and the Co-op and Adam Smith and Jardine and Matheson but Danny was off school that day. ‘I think it’s very hard to see how major financial institutions could keep their headquarters in an independent Scotland if there was no central bank and no lender of last resort.’ And even harder if you don’t know what you’re talking about.

The use of a currency board is a perfectly logical concept which uses its funds to maintain the level of the currency, as far as I can see. It works elsewhere without London’s financial genius which, as you’ll recall made such a spectacular success of the meltdown, aided by Gordon and Alistair’s regulatory system.

And the lender of last resort argument was disproved in Scotland’s case by the banking crash when the brass plaque was found to be all but meaningless. The bail-out money came from the central banks in the countries where the Scottish banks operated. That’s why London paid in £65bn to RBS and HBOS and would have done so if Scotland had been independent. However the US Federal Reserve made emergency loans available to RBS of £285bn and to HBOS of £115bn and bailed out Barclays with $550bn, because they were operating in the USA.

The same principle would apply to banks in an independent Scotland. Most of their trade would be abroad and that’s where the bail-out would take place.

Danny is heaping ammunition into the English bigots’ tray with this latest rant against any logical solution for his countrymen. They are the same ones who said it was wrong for a Scot to be Prime Minister, misunderstanding what their own country is meant to be about. The very fact that Brown as a Scot could be PM was confirmation that the Union worked but they are blinded by their prejudice. Which is what I have always believed about the Union. It is an artifice built on a myth. It only ever worked when everything suited the larger neighbor and now that they are being challenged any concept of “British fair play” and stiff upper lip has evaporated in a vapour of barely-concealed hatred.

One of the legacies of this referendum episode is that it has exposed once and for all that the Union was a con – it was a takeover as confirmed in the UK’s legal advice – and British meant English and if we go along with it we are demeaning Scotland. That’s what the English Scot-baiters expect of us, that we acquiesce and acknowledge their generosity and charity. Their ignorance about their own country, let alone Scotland, has been presented to the world and underlined by Cameron’s fear of debate. And the true nature of our “family of nations” is now out there, not just on the internet but buttressed by the state – Civil Service, ALL the main parties, big business and the media. That won’t go away after September’s vote, whichever way it turns out.

*2 hours ago The greatest threat to the future success of an independent Scotland has nothing to do with oil, nor business’s exodus, nor Scotland’s other physical resources, which are indeed enviable. The greatest threat to Scotland’s success is the intellectual paucity of Scotland’s human capital. It is not widely appreciated that as a consequence of so many intelligent Scots having, since the Union of the Crowns, left Scotland to make their lives elsewhere, the residual population presently has the lowest average IQ in Europe outside of the ‘Boratland’ countries of the former Soviet bloc and France. The Scottish average IQ of 97 is well below the England and Wales average of 100.5 and about level with the IQ of citizens of the Republic of Ireland; not a very high bar to jump. As one would expect, London and the south-east of England scored top in the UK, with an average IQ of 102. Scotland – when differentiated from the rest of the UK – comes two-thirds down the table of European average intelligence, beating Russia by only one percentage point, but France by three. I’m not at all sure that anything can be done about this as the trend looks set to accelerate in a post-Independence Day Scotland, which is a sad thing indeed.

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74 thoughts on “Outraged, Tunbridge Wells”

Outraged of Johnstone! Yup there will be no United Kingdom whatever after Sept unless the UK change tack, but then a NO vote at the end of it will give the Unionists the opportunity to lay the blame for the wreckage at the feet of the SNP and steps will be taken, I think the word ”crush” has been mentioned lots of times. The elites wont ever want to go through this ever again, their lies being challenged and a previously uninformed electorate educated.
And of course the blame for everything is, and will, be laid at the feet of the SNP, as that is what the UK press will be tasked to do.
The British State is at war you see, by all means, and by whatever it takes.

I’m a bit hazy on the exact details (perhaps Derek would be able to give more info) but I remember Fox News transforming a crowd out supporting Chavez in Venezuela into a mob denouncing the president and turning it into an anti government demonstration by skillful editing of the footage. This media manipulation resulted in enraging the Venezuelan people to such an extent that they took their anger out on US citizens and the owners of Fox Media achieving their goal.
I’m very concerned that this manufactured bile is aiming to achieve a similar outcome here. Manufacture resentment hoping it’ll escalate and ergo they can say the same about the Scots,
I’ve elaborated on this in my post at http://justinfayresweeklyrant.wordpress.com.
Please let’s just be ” nodding dugs” to all this manufactured nonsense. Believe me nothing infuriates the antagoniser more.

The only worry I have is a no vote in September because then we will be pariahs in the UK.
The scorn we get now will be nothing compared to what we will get then.

Someone else mentioned that the Scots MPs would have to change their accents as they will be hated – another reason why I dont understand them playing the BritNat.

If there is a Yes – whch I pray for, time will heal the rift as folk will be too busy getting on with their lives.

As to London having the highest IQ – well doh – that’s because of all the high powered jobs there are there and the big influx of folk from abroad.

This will be redressed if we are independent as we will also attract more graduates etc.

IQ isn’t everything as you know because the caring professions need different skills other than academic ones.
Who cares if your sick and want comfort whether or not someone can translate ancient greek or understand quantum mechanics.

These differences are marginal. He’d need to show that Scotland lacks sufficient people in the very bright range, say over 150, and there’s no evidence of that at all. The figures given are all basically the same – even if everyone is essentially the same, if you record to a sufficient number of significant figures, someons will always be “top” and someone else will always be “bottom”. As advertisers know well how to exploit.

Scorn off those inbred people ,do not give this a second thought,we are far superior in all ways ,except possibly our own people who do not have the brains to look up the facts ,,they know there is so much more to learn but their desperation to hold on the the apron strings of the idea of Britain is dulling the senses,such a sad lot

Derek, I am afraid the Guardian’s Cif is going down the same sorry route as the Telegraph. It seems to have attracted UKIPers, and other voluble types, who are very, very angry at us for even having a referendum on independence.

I started going online to The Guardian threads in 2010, and the vitriol aimed at Scots astonished me. The only real difference now is that Scots with the cringe join in as well. God, I hope Yes wins, just to GIRUthem! #whadaurmeddlewithme

It’s a great pity that hardly anyone in Scotland reads the Telegraph because statements like these would guarantee a separation from Toryland.
I suppose this is the sort of stuff they are taught at public school so that they know how to treat the underclasses who inhabit the peripheral parts of “their” fiefdom.
Couldn’t make it clearer why we need to part company.
Maybe we should be proud of our lower IQ which allows us to see the advantages of collective activity,unlike the highly intelligent beings that infest London who can’t see beyond Me Me Me.
As far as the banks go,I have wondered whether they can continue to call themselves something Bank of Scotland if they no longer have any connection with Scotland?
Maybe someone who knows about trading laws could confirm.
Not sure whether to thank you for this Derek but edifying I suppose.

“I suppose this is the sort of stuff they are taught at public school so that they know how to treat the underclasses who inhabit the peripheral parts of “their” fiefdom.”

I think you have missed the point of Derek’s article. The hatred being shown is due to the fact they think, correctly, that we don’t love them anymore, and they are striking back just like a rejected spouse. Bear in mind too that these are Telegraph readers whose normal location is down there in the slime with DHeil readers and whose intelligence level is most probably down in the 60s.

That is a blatant contradiction in terms. No such person exists. I do visit the Telegraph and write BTL merely to wind them up and I can assure you they are all stupid, and that includes most of their ‘journalists’.

“Has Britain ever had such an inexperienced, unskilled, juvenile, student politician in the Treasury team?” Bateman on phase 2 – Racism from London. We are officially stupid! The “deadhand” of Empire is rotten with decay!

I don’t believe that this racist surge is a new thing. As long as we can remember, the Sweaty Sock tag has been applied wherever a Scotsman turns up in England. What is a more recent development however, is that this attitude is now the accepted norm among certain groups. The referendum debate has given the green light to those who think along those lines. Instead of mouthing off in the pub, they can now put the same sentiments in print or online, knowing that it is now acceptable in polite circles to insult the Scots without fear of prosecution under racism laws. Politicians at the highest level are being seen to get off with it so they believe they can do the same. It is a double insult when Scottish politicians join in with this vilification of their countrymen in the knowledge that the MSM will defend them. We will remember them.

Trouble is that Westminster by not taking a fairer view when talking about Scotland, they are creating problems where few existed. The SG has remained the bright outlook in comparison. The long term issues that the Unionists are forming without any thought of the long term consequences, do not enter their sad brains.

They may well create a divide that will be hard to repair, all because of the petted lip attitude they encourage. As far as Scots are concerned, we need to fix Scotland, which we will. After that we can only attempt to try and repair the damage that has been done, by Westminster.
That may prove to be not so easy, faced with the abuse from south of the border, nevertheless rUK will have to reign this in, which will be in their own interests to do so, the problem is, just how long it will take to undo what they have done.

Westminster will want to still work with a friendly Scotland over many issues, but they are digging themselves into an ever deeper hole. In doing so it will be harder to reverse. Unless they pull back and take a friendlier attitude towards an Independent Scotland and re educate their population that Scots can be helpful in achieving their own goals. They are making such a normalisation very difficult.

Scotland will be open to a friendly existence across all of the British Isles. Let us hope, beyond hope, that they wake up.

Oooh, Lordy lordy, de massa am angry. Mr. Boss tells me that I’s no good, got no learnin and the gold in my pocket belongs to him. Ah thinks it time I quit this place an let him pick his own cotton an I don’t care what that ole uncle Jock Alexander done say. MmmmHmm!

The reason for Danny’s latest outburst is that things aren’t going to plan. They had anticipated that they would have forced the Yes camp to abandon currency union by now and would be able to get on with attacking Plan B. That’s why Johann Lamont and her Labour colleagues looked so confused in the Parliament last week blethering nonsensically about transaction costs. There aren’t many agile minds in Better Together.

Wow! That’s all I can say. Wow! Do they really think that even after a NO vote life in the UK can ever return to what is was pre this referendum campaign? However the coin falls on 18th September, Scotland will increasingly be a foreign country.

Another great piece Derek, for reasons too numerous to mention. it is though ironic that Danny Alexander doesn’t have a hope in hell of being elected at the next UK election. Not because Scotland will be independent but because he has so demeaned his country and people, failed on tuition fees and backed the Tories to the hilt, that no-one will again vote for him, anywhere, anytime!

Funny, I remember whilst living in Tunbridge Wells a topic at a dinner party, to the effect that W. Indians ( really anyone of a darker hue ) had lower IQs. Subsequently it became clear why – all the tests were devised by white middle class Englishmen so your young inner city guy had no idea for example of Victorian legend. Give him a paw paw or avocado and ask him to produce a superb plateful, on the other hand……

I only felt a foreigner twice while in England, once long ago when a lovely girlfriend invited me to a tea party with 30 or so others in North London, when someone said ” are we all kosher here ” and I was stared at as the only gentile. The other time thirty years later was on an invitation across the road ( in T Wells ) to a millennium party – my lovely English neighbours were acutely embarrassed when a large woman said ( I guess she was well lubricated as it was near midnight ) that if the Scots wanted their own Parliament they could fuck off. Too late, they had just got their Parliament !

Derek, when living in London around 20 years ago, I read a Scottish Sunday newspaper which announced that the average IQ in Scotland had just fallen below the average IQ in England (specifically, I think) for the first time. This was entirely attributable to emigration from Scotland, the article said.

How long before the buses are going round London with messages telling Scots to go home to their own country? Such “fear of the other” only testifies to the insecurity that is in the shallow dried up life of your average Telegraph and Daily Mail reader.

If they weren’t so dangerous in large numbers that the Tories (and now Labour) have to adjust their policies to suit them, we should feel sorry for them as they feel the need to wallow together in their self conceited ignorance barging around energetically and with great sense of communal purposeless purpose like pigs in shit thinking they rule the pig sty that Britain is rapidly becoming. How are they to know how thick they really are when reading the Telegraph has become the limit of their intellectual activity. After all who in their right mind irrespective of IQ, high or low, could read that stuff on a daily basis without being brain-washed out of all human compassion and creative imagination.

Besides, I have always found people who are obsessed with their own IQ like some superior badge of honour to be folk who have their head stuck too far up their own backsides to see much light. After all IQ only measures numeracy and literacy and not imagination and creativity which have been the real drivers of human endeavour throughout history.

Jist mibbie the Celts in general have a wee edge in still relating to the world around them with wonder and creative imagination, or is that jist being a stereotyping racist too? Is IQ to be seen in any way as the measure of the man (or wuman)? I think we have long outlived that mid 20th century notion.

The first requirement to support the ‘No position’ is to have a lack of integrity coupled with a sense of colonial superiority. Westminster has been doing this to Scotland for years why would they change now? The Westminster view is stuck in a very deep rut back when the Secretary of State for Scotland was the virtual Viceroy of Scotland. I have weaned myself off the Guardian threads because the torrent of misogynistic, hate filled, racial stereo typing of the Scots by posters has made me realise they do not want to ‘discuss’, most English posters are stuck on send – the message is get back in your box sweaty jocks and know your place. Everything is all ours your getting bugger all, Jockanese twats, so – Nyah!

Mr Alexander is trapped in this same Westminster think because while they know the consequences of a Yes vote for them, sterling and much else they can not bring themselves to tell the folk of England and Wales how spurious many of the claims being made about what Scotland can not do, in fact are.

Who can seriously think banks currently HQ’d in Scotland are going to pull out of a country with a £1.6 trillion asset, a projected annual current account surplus in the region of £15 billion, a pound Scots which outside Sterling will become a ‘hard currency’ (projections are the £Scot will be worth £1.20p Sterling inside two years) and a debt to GDP ration of between 45 and 50% dependent on whether we take on Sterling debt or not; for a country with a £1.7 trillion debt (and still rising) a falling tax surplus and a 95% debt to GDP ratio, with a currency which is set to devalue leading to a potential capital flight from its economy’s main earner – the City of London. All this at a time where the markets are getting jittery about the large debt that still under pins both Wall Street and the City of London couple with a Chinese and Indian growth slow down of over heated economies.

Sadly the opposite is true. As a result of concerns over the UK’s continued membership of the EU overseas banks are looking at setting up European HQ’s in Scotland to take advantage of an independent Scotland within the EU. Barclays has just recently shifted a big chunk of its European Barclay Card operation and investment banking back office functions to Glasgow and are looking to recruit economists and the like.

At no point does anything Westminster is currently saying about a post Yes vote economic or any other scenario in Scotland stand up to even light investigation, let alone serious investigation.

Couldn’t agree more MJ. I’ve been thinking of chucking the Guardian visits for a while myself to concentrate more on discussions within Scottish sites. The level of post dropped several notches post the sermon on the pound. The amount of sheer malignant glee was quite appalling from the supposedly soft cuddly side of the London media.

Neither thought nor consideration, every comment posted as unassailable fact, it was pretty grim reading and replying. With only six months to go, I’m thinking its time to concentrate more fully on discussions with our own electorate than participating in missionary work.

I’ve just been fighting the good fight all over Larry Elliot’s illiterate piece of propaganda on the Graun and I’m being roundly ignored. They have no interest in learning about reality. They just want to wallow in their xenophobic isolation.

I know the type English person from when we lived in London. I’m also reminded of the stushie over the All Black’s other haka Te Paka O Pango and he misunderstanding of the take a breath gesture at the end as a ‘throat slitting gesture’. Even when it was explained what the gesture meant it was and still is referred to as ‘that throat slitting gesture’. They don’t want to learn, especially if it requires them to challenge their outlook in any way.

Its fingers in the ears ignorance. Good folk like dorice and Tenthred post links till they’re blue in the fingers and just get roundly ignored. Doesn’t matter how accurate or insightful the accompanying post. The new wave of trolls have their prejudiced bit firmly between their teeth and its not pretty. I never thought I’d see the day in the Guardian. Apparently all was right with the world so long as we knew our place.

I may pay the odd visit from time to time but now I think is a good time to start concentrating on convincing our electorate to take their governance into their own hands.

If this article wasn’t serious it would be funny .It represents all the thinking of a certain class of our southern neighbours who imagine they have a superiority conferred on them , not by intelligence but by virtue of birth. Whilst at times it can be annoying it should be treated as nothing more than an annoyance which is easily ignored .Another generation or two and they will be be strangers in their own land living on memories of a long lost empire . What then ?

Again, this underlines a point i made in an earlier post by Derek. The unionists have done such a hatchet job on Scotland’s reputation within the union, that it is unlikely that the union can survive a no vote. Scotland won’t be celebrated as British patriots for voting no – they will be mocked as scroungers. The no vote will confirm the worst fears of the English about what the Scots are. This contempt will be be met with increased anti-British sentiment. Yes or No – the union is finished.

Re: Scottish IQ. I read the article. This guy is just taking the piss so we should all relax.
On the other hand if he reckons that people in the south east of England have the highest IQ then maybe this because there is a high proportion of people from the Asian sub continent, the Caribbean, central Africa and eastern Europe living there. After all ‘an intelligent Englishman’ surely must be paradox… if not, then it’s a oxymoron.

I have this vision of Danny Alexander in his past life guiding a troop of Red Coats, bayonets fixed, to a croft house in his future constituency, where several wounded Jacobite prisoners with their woman folk are hiding. “In here boys,” says Danny to the Red Coats. “Stick them good and give them a bayonet in the guts from me and don’t spare the women. By the way, where’s Cumberland? I have to pay my respects and ask him if he has any vacancies for a loyal servant on his staff.”
After getting directions, Danny heads off to look for Cumberland, with the screams of the women echoing in the background. Danny doesn’t look back, he doesn’t care, he’s got his eyes on the prize. A job with his new English master.

Jeez Derek, I don’t know how I can cram into a short paragraph my response.
1. it is much more difficult to secure a job in a small market, so arguably the Scots who stay and can find work in Scotland are the brighter bunch. If I had a pound for every time I was advised “You should move down here, it’s easy”.
2. As Morag observes, the IQ differential is marginal.
3.Dunkie says that IQ measures only numeracy and literacy, not imagination and creativity. I have gently teased Morag over on Wings on reading music, of being a metronome player, whereas I prefer, by listening to others, to play whatever is in my mood and in my head at the time without written music sheets. So I would fail a music exam. I’ve worked alongside some numbskull Chartered engineers, and in my hobby of motorcycling engineering and competition I’ve met some quite astonishingly able and creative people of no academic paper qualifications.
4. I recommend the book by Carol Craig – The Scots’ Crisis of Confidence. Not really what the title suggests. Pages 66 The English poet Ewart Gavin:
The Irish are great talkers
Persuasive and disarming
You can say lots and lots
Against the Scots
To 68. – A very logical people.

We are different, get used to it. Admire and respect the Scots thinkers and inventors of the past, and nurture the those of the future.
Well I’ve got that off my chest!

‘Interesting that the theories of eugenics are still informing right-wing thinking in the UK! Even if this IQ stuff were not complete nonsense, the logic is obviously flawed. If the posited decline in IQ in Scotland is a consequence of the Union, sticking with it would seem an unlikely remedy.

There is no need to trouble yourself reading the Telegraph to find bitter and twisted contributors falling over each other in the rush to mock, abuse, patronise and resent the very idea of Scotland taking control of its own affairs. You can find plenty over at well known left-leaning Labour house journal The Guardian.

Reading your latest piece, Derek, I felt shame and sorrow that you were able to write “the Highland MP Danny Alexander”. However your description “inexperienced, unskilled, juvenile, student politician” is too kind. We all remember how he entered No.10, smiling, unable to believe his luck and no doubt hoping his ignorance wouldn’t be discovered immediately. But Cameron and GO didn’t have a large pen of possible Lib Dem poodles…….and in any case all they needed was someone who could learn his lines quickly. The fact that he even attempted to adopt an “educated” London accent was all to the good as that denotes a lack of confidence.
So there he is, Danny Alexander, the perfect man for the job.
Highland MP but not for much longer. I hope, for his own sake, he has learned in London to save his money as well as brush his shoes.

How does a glorified press/propaganda officer end up working as Chief Secretary to the Treasury? I seen no past employment credentials and experience that make him a suitable candidate for this job and to advise the Scottish People about what is good for them. But it seems to be the done thing these days:

So we’ve got a higher IQ than the French. Hang on a minute, isn’t France an independent country? How have they managed all these years without the superior intellect of the master race across La Manche?

Sorry, you’re all wrong about Danny Alexander! He is, think I’ve got the right words, astute, shrewd, maybe even surefooted, was used. I quote Magnus Gardham, political editor of The Herald on Saturday, following Alexander’s visit to Holyrood to tell us we were all doooooomed! I didn’t read any more, I was blinded with tears of pride, our boy had made good. So eat your words, jealousy will get you nowhere!
But seriously, where is all this UK media vituperation going to end, the corrosive effects of acid and bile are destructive to all around.

I’ve been “around the block too many times” to take much notice of such puerile pronouncements , but it does reinforce the opinion I formed some time ago that it will get increasingly meaner and nastier the nearer we get to 18 September, and have to agree with the sentiments expressed about how we will pay if there is a NO vote victory. I don’t think they’ll just “fall on us with bared teeth”. I think it’ll be more devastating than that in that they’ll endeavour to dismantle our existing government apparatus to make impossible any future challenge to the status quo – watch out Scotland!

Absolutely Brian, if it is a NO vote, they will set the dogs on Scotland and rip her apart! They would do it now but that would not go down well even with the Independence deniers! Their belittling attitude, from the westminster masters that is, as well as the stirring up of hatred toward Scotland is an utter disgrace and I think very dangerous but deliberate. They would like nothing better than to rile folk on either side enough to incite some kind of violence, that’s the feeling I get, I hope I am wrong.

I never read the comments on these sites, their contributors are extremely bilious. In fact, the comments on the Indyref sites are the only ones worth reading, for their intelligence and humour, The Telegraph IQ item is so pompous and erroneous it must be an attempt at humour, albeit unsuccessful. He doesn’t cite his data so it is most likely wrong. Let us not worry about some English people hating us. These types hate everybody. It may be a collective form of the five stages of grief when confronted with a loss! First denial, then anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance. (Kubler-Ross http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BCbler-Ross_model

Please forgive me. This was posted in the wrong place earlier. (Hard day at work honest)

I’m a bit hazy on the exact details (perhaps Derek would be able to give more info) but I remember Fox News transforming a crowd out supporting Chavez in Venezuela into a mob denouncing the president and turning it into an anti government demonstration by skillful editing of the footage. This media manipulation resulted in enraging the Venezuelan people to such an extent that they took their anger out on US citizens and the owners of Fox Media achieving their goal.
I’m very concerned that this manufactured bile is aiming to achieve a similar outcome here. Manufacture resentment hoping it’ll escalate and ergo they can say the same about the Scots,
I’ve elaborated on this in my post at http://justinfayresweeklyrant.wordpress.com.
Please let’s just be ” nodding dugs” to all this manufactured nonsense. Believe me nothing infuriates the antagoniser more.

The English backlash will continue to grow in the next few months. It is noticable though that the “people in business” wheeled out to predict doom and disaster for an independent Scotland either have OBEs or have strong ties to the UK government. It isn’t really the English that are upset but those who have really had the power in Britain, the same families who went through the same private school route for generations and expect to end their days in the lords. Their time is coming to an end and their naked fear is getting ever more shrill. The man in the street reads what he is told which is precious little. The Guardian and Telegraph are just the broadsheet versions of the same media, the same monsters for a slightly more articulate audience with the same polemic at it’s heart.